Traditional Media’s Move Away from Community has Opened Doors for Social Media

I thought this blog provided some interesting insights on traditional media and the emergence and relevance of social media so I asked Bill’s permission to add it to the ChatterBachs blog for the benefit of our readers.

by Bill Ives (reprinted with permission)

Mike Frey through Social Media Today provided an insightful post on How Traditional Media Created Social Media. Mike opens with this observation. “Prior to conglomeration there was a time that radio, television and print were local community outlets.  At one time the big three were locally owned, and concentrated on local community.  Now most decisions that are made for communities regarding their major media are made from thousands of miles away.  What music to play, what programming to air, and all the cuts made at the print level most stories come off the wore than actually written by reporters.”

I also remember this local control in the three traditional media and have been disappointed in its passing.  Now many people use social media to make up for this loss of community as Mike notes.  I certainly get much of my news through my Twitter friends and share back what I learn through Twitter and blogs. Like Mike, I stopped my subscription to our Boston print paper as it got smaller and, more importantly wrote about stores I had already heard through social media. I found myself often failing to walk down the driveway to pick it up. Now I still read the New York Times online for national and global stories. Even the TV news is a bit old and I watch more to see how they spin stories than to get new news.

Some traditional media outlets understand this trend and are looking for ways to become more connected to their community through social media. I have written about many of these efforts on the Darwin blog (for example, Foursquare Forging More Partnerships with Traditional Media and BBC Pushes Social Media for Its News Staff for Both News Collection and Impact Monitoring).

The Darwin Awareness Engine™ can help traditional media with both news collection and impact monitoring. For example, it can look at social media to bring forward stories for traditional media (see Tracking Social Media Buzz with Darwin Awareness Engine™). Here is the first of a three part series on how Darwin can help make traditional media better connected with its community: Creating a Sustainable Ecosystem for Community News Media – Part One: Providing Relevance and Creating Loyalty.